Seamen “Riroil-2”, Who Are on a Hunger Strike, Will be Paid by Salary Company Palmali

ITAR-TASS: Seamen of the vessel “Riroil-2” of the Turkish company Palmali, who had earlier declared a hunger strike, receive food and do not lead a protest action. They will be paid wage arrears, said Rauf Aliyev, Vice President for Control and Audit at Palmali.

As previously reported, the crew of the ship “Riroil-2” on September 1, declared a hunger strike due to the long delay in the payment of salaries. The company Palmali owed the crew more than 200 thousand dollars. According to the press service of the Russian Seafarers ’Trade Union, a crew of nine Russians and an Azerbaijani citizen worked on board for six months, the salary debt has been dragging since last year. The vessel is located in the Black Sea for a 12-mile zone in the Kerch Strait area.

“The company keeps in touch with the crew, makes maximum efforts to close the debt. There is definitely no hunger strike, it is already considered an emergency, the main office should be notified. How the crew can starve, if they order food, they get it all on time. For some reason, the crew wants to stand there until the full settlement, so let’s go to meet them, fully calculate, then we will be loaded with work, ”said Aliyev.

According to him, salary delays are associated with technical difficulties in transferring funds to seamen’s bank cards and because the vessel is located 12 miles behind orders.

“The company has vessels under the Russian flag, under the Maltese flag, their total number is in the region of 100, respectively, in isolated cases, there are such delays. This is due to the fact that the vessel is currently out of work on the territory of the Russian Federation, stood 12 miles away, there are difficulties in organizing the delivery. The money is either transferred to a bank account, it is either the seaman does not have a bank account, or he is closed for some reason, or he will need to come to the port of Istanbul, or the port of Malta, where there are head offices, there is a special agent service, which this money delivers. Given that these vessels were out of work, the crews did not go on flights, there was a delay, ”he said.

Earlier, the crew reported that the shipowner ignores the requirements of seafarers for the payment of salaries, their health condition is deteriorating. Also, the chairman of the trade union committee of the Rostov city trade union organization of the Azov-Don trade union committee of the crew of the Russian seamen’s union, Leonid Glushak, reported that the trade union is negotiating with the shipowner.

According to the Azov-Don Trade Union Committee, the salaries were not paid to the sailors of the four ships of the company Palmali – “Riroil-5”, “Riroil-3”, “Adriatic Mariner” and “Riroil-2”. Due to wage arrears, the crew of the Riroil-5 vessel flying the flag of Malta, which was on the roadstead in the port of Azov, also announced a hunger strike. The shipowner company, after the intervention of the transport prosecutor’s office, paid off wage arrears to the crews of two tankers in the ports of Azov and Rostov-on-Don, totalling more than 6 million rubles, the seamen stopped the protest action.